Very Nice, sweet pool!!! I over winter bananas every year and I have 5 small groves. I used to see places with 12ft and higher trees around town. I live in Portland and we dont get super cold but have snowfall a few times a year. One place that had awesome bananas in town is the Chinese gardens, and I finally contacted their gardner and he told me how to do it. I bet it would work in your area. At the end of the year cut off the leaves before the first frost. Mound the base of the tree in steer manure then wrap the stalks in housing insulation. Then I bought some pallet shrink wrap that goes around that. Wait til signs of frost are gone to remove. It doesn't look the best through the winter but, it's awesome to start off big every spring once the leaves start growing. At the gardens they wrap burlap around the housing insulation to make it look nice in the winter time. Hope that is helpful to you.

@Bloody Good thanks for the banana info. Seems like wrapping them in plastic would cause them to rot...but it sounds like it is working. I'm definitely going to give it a try next summer. I think its too late now to get anything going this season.

No problem, it has taken me 7 years to get my system down. I tried covering them in just plastic, the first year and they did rot. I don't actually cut the stalks/trunks down. I just take the leaves off and leave the top leaf the is just coming up. Then on some of the smaller ones I will put a stake next to the trunk. Then I wrap the pink housing insulation around the stalk up as high as they go. Then the plastic goes around the outside of the paper part of the insulation to keep the rain off and to keep it from sliding down or falling apart. I usually do this the last week in Nov or early Dec, then I always wait til April 1st to uncover.
I love them...they are totally worth the effort. One stalk even began to fruit this year.

@Fugu - Thanks...I looked up some photos of the Scottsdale Trader Vics actually got a couple ideas for my hut/bar from those.

I've been getting quotes from various mural painters this week. I'm going to go with the simple scene mural if I do any. I think it looks unique and tropical, but not over the top and should keep the price down. Prices for the simple one are ranging from $800-4200 so far. But a friend of a friend that paints murals is coming over this weekend to look at the project. I figure $800 is about the point at which I would try to do it myself (not that I would do as good of a job)...for $4200 I would take an art class and then do it myself. I appreciate the skill involved in a good painting...but I think my simple banana tree background should be a simple project to accomplish.

I am concerned about the mural lasting on the fence though. It doesn't get any direct sun so that should help. Maybe during the winter I could devise some sort of tarp to hang over it for protection for a few months out of the year.

I've also started sketching out the new tiki bar/cabana. The design goal is to have something that looks sophisticated enough to blend in, but still have enough tiki elements be fun and qualify as a tiki bar. My wife has indicated she doesn't want anything that is too far out there...no thatched roofs for me. But I may still sneak in a little grass skirting along the soffit.

Thank you for the PM today. I am so glad you wrote becasue I loved looking at all your projects. The second idea for a tropical fence would be beautiful. I'm going to remember to come back here for updates. Wendy
_________________

I messed around with a piece of scrap lumber to see how easy it would be to make my own trim for the bar this weekend. About 10 minutes with the miter saw and torch and this is what I came up with:

I think I will look into purchasing a router and make more complex designs. But I think it will be a fun/easy project and will work making the trim over the winter so I am ready to go with the build next spring.

I've been busy working on the design of my hut/bar project for next spring. While working on the vision for design/decoration possibilities, I decided it would be fun to have monkeys as well as tikis in the bar. My current design calls for a small loft area above the cabana area where I can stage some cool stuff looking down on the bar area. Although it is probably premature to be purchasing decorations at this point, the price was right so I pulled the trigger on one of the ugliest things on ebay this month. This monkey statue is 18-inches tall by 20 inches long and will hopefully look cool in the future cabana loft:

I'm excited I picked up this lamp for the tiki bar build. I plan to also add a few float lamps, but this light looked like it would be fun to decorate the space. It reminds me of the 60's/70's plastic swag lamps sold as "tiki"...but this one is brass.